Since quitting my full-time job in June of this year, I’ve taken three full weeks (and a handful of days heres and there) off for vacation and plan for more around the holidays coming up soon! The freedom and flexibility of working for myself has been amazing, and I am truly thankful for this opportunity! For personal brands like myself, it can be scary to take time away, knowing that everything rests on you. Listen to this week’s episode of the Self-Starter Podcast for tips on how I plan for vacation in my business. I promise, it doesn’t have to be as scary as you think!

Listen to this episode now:

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Tip #1: Communicate Clearly

When you’re working with one-on-one clients or have thousands of loyal followers on social, it’s important to communicate clearly what they can expect while you’re away. Here’s what you want to let them know so both you and your client can feel good about and respect your intentional vacay time.

• Let them know about your vacation at least one week in advance.
• Set expectations about how they can reach you and if/when you’ll respond.
• Tell them when you’ll be back.
• Give them freedom to email or text you with the knowledge there might be a delay in a response from you.

Lesson #2: “Beef up” your Auto-Responder

While you’re away, you’ll want the peace of mind knowing that anyone who contacts you will feel taken care of. You also need to rest assured that they will have something to do to interact with you or take the next step with you without you having to be actually available to them.

*Enter the “beefed” up autoresponder*

Whenever I am away in my business, I am sure to turn on a really great email that will automatically get sent to anyone who reaches out. This email targets my audience specifically with clear next steps. See a screenshot of my exact email responder below and feel free to copy and paste to use in your own business!

More tips and advice on how I plan for vacation in my business continued in the episode!

Links Mentioned:

Take me to the SHOW NOTES (on the blog).

Visit the blog for my Rosemary Beach Travel Guide!

Maine Travel Guide coming soon!

Listen to the Digital Calendar Planning episode.

Follow Nichole on INSTAGRAM.

Free Resources and Tools HERE.

Shoot with Nichole at The Styled Event.

Shop Nichole’s Amazon Favorites (including gear, biz books, and more!).